PVC into acrylic without bulkhead?

[reef_noob]

Hey all, I'm working on a bit of a project with a small acrylic tank. I want to run 1/2" pvc into the side, but I don't have enough room to fit a bulkhead between the tank and the case holding the tank. In fact, the pvc will fit in but the 90 degree pvc fitting to turn the line into the tank won't.

So, my question is, can I drill a hole in the acrylic the size of the 90 degree fitting's outside diameter and glue it in? What kind of glue would bond pvc and acrylic? I don't expect that there will be any significant stress on the joints in this application (minimal lateral stress, no torque), so it just has to be a watertight and reasonably strong bond.

[Doug1]

Check out this site, one of the Weld-On glues should do the trick, #16 maybe, after install and glue you might want to reinforce the outside with JB Weld or MArinetex epoxy , good luck

[RobinsonFam1]

yes weld on 16 will bond acrylic and pvc.
dont plan on ever taking them apart!

BR

[reef_noob]

Sweet! thanks guys!

[Geoff]

Originally Posted by RobinsonFam1

yes weld on 16 will bond acrylic and pvc.
dont plan on ever taking them apart!

BR

i have had OK, at best, luck with this. it does not seem to dissolve the PVC nearly as well as it does the acrylic. i have had them fail over time. they seem to weaken with age, which seems odd for this kind of bond. it does not seem to handle stress well at all without breaking.

right now i only have one bond done this way that has held. it is on my collection cup. i glued some acrylic plate to a 4" diameter PVC pipe. this is a significant amount of surface area, so this may be why it has held. i have to keep redoing the exact same bond at least once a year on the 1.5" diameter PVC pipe attached to the same acrylic plate.

some food for thought. if it did work so well, then why do all of the protein skimmer manufacturers use bulkheads on their skimmers instead of glueing them? it would make things a lot less inexpensive.

G~

[BLFuller123]

I have had ok results as well. What I usually do to add strength is cut the hole in the acrylic the size of od of the pipe. Then I wll get a slip fitting and glue a short piece of pipe together. Then I install the pipe with the slip fitting with glue through the acrylic, and then glue a second slip fitting on the opposite side so what I am actually doing is glueing the fittings to the acrylic. That way you have a little more surface for the weldon to stick to plus you have the strength from the pipe too. Does this make sense?

[reef_noob]

>Does this make sense?

Yep! Thanks